Following the issue of an arrest warrant in December against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Gordon Brown announced last week that Britain will "legislate as soon as possible" to prevent people "motivated purely by political gesture" from seeking and obtaining arrest warrants against foreign dignitaries. He acknowledged that it is Britain's international duty to prosecute alleged war criminals, but added that the evidential basis on which arrest warrants can be allowed should be tougher and the right to prosecute should cover a narrower range of crimes falling under universal jurisdiction and be left to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) alone. Ironically, it is Brown himself who has politicised the process by reducing what is a longstanding common law right to the discretion of the CPS.

EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton has said she plans to visit Gaza on her Middle East trip next week, putting Israeli authorities in an awkward position.

"I have asked to go to Gaza, we'll see what happens," she told press at an informal EU ministers' meeting in Cordoba, Spain, over the weekend, according to Reuters. "We are providing a huge amount of aid into Gaza and I'm very interested to make sure that we are seeing the benefits of that aid going in."

Ms Ashton is to travel to Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan on 17 March on her first official journey to the region.

Consistent with its call for full, credible and independent investigations by all the parties into their conduct during the Gaza Conflict, the UK yesterday voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution.

Britain was one of 98 countries from the 192 members to vote for the resolution while 7 voted against [including the U.S. and Israel] with 31 abstentions. More than 50 countries were absent during the vote. Some missions were hampered from getting to the UN headquarters in time due to bad weather in New York.

European Union High Court: Israeli settlement products do not qualify for preferential treatment
The European High Court ruled on Thursday that products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are not included in Israel's trade agreement with the European Community (EC) for preferential trade treatment.

The EC have agreements with both Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) which give preferential treatment to goods coming out of their two respective areas. The EC-PLO Association Agreement was "for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip" while the EC-Israel Association Agreement covers the "territory of the state of Israel." However, Israel has tried to argue that their agreement should extend to include Israeli products produced by Israeli companies in the West Bank.